THE FRUITS OF REPENTANCE (A.W. Pink)

To help the exercised reader identify true repentance, consider the fruits that demonstrate godly repentance.
1.A real hatred of sin as sin, not merely it's consequences. A hatred of not only of this or that sin, but of all sin, and particularly of the root itself: Self-will. "Thus saith the Lord God, Repent, and turn from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations" (Ezekiel 14:6). He, who hates not sin, loves it. God's demand is, "Ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed" (Ezekiel 20:43). One who has really repented can truthfully say, " I hate every false way" (Psalm 119:104). He who once thought a course for holy living was a gloomy thing, has another judgment now. He , who once regarded a course of self-pleasing as attractive, now detests it and has purposed to forsake all sin forever. This is the change of mind God requires.
2. A deep sorrow for sin. The non saving repentance of so many is principally a distress occasioned by forebodings of divine wrath; but evangelical repentance produces a deep grief from a sense of having offended so infinitely excellent and glorious a Being as God. The one is the effect of fear, the other of love. The one is only for a brief season; the other is the habitual practice for life. Many a man is filled with regret and remorse over misspent life, yet has no poignant sorrow of heart for his ingratitude and rebellion against God. But a regenerated soul is cut to the quick for having disregarded and opposed his great Benefactor and rightful Sovereign
This is the change of heart God requires.
"ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner... for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation" (2 Cor 7:9-10). Such a sorrow is produced in the heart by the Holy Spirit and has God for its object. It is a grief for having despised such a God, rebelled against His authority, and been indifferent to His glory. It is this that causes us to "weep bitterly" (Mat 26:75). He who has not grieved over sin takes pleasure therein. God requires us to "afflict our souls (Lev 16:29). His call is, Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your hearts and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful" ( Joel 2:12-12). Only that sorrow for sin is genuine which causes us to crucify "the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Gal 5:24).
3. Confessing of sin. " He that covereth his sins shall not prosper" (Proverbs 28:13). It is second nature to the sinner to deny his sins, directly or indirectly, to minimize or make excuses for them. It was thus with Adam and Eve at the beginning. But when the Holy Spirit works in any soul, his sins are brought to light, and he, in turn, acknowledges them to God. There is no relief for the stricken heart until he does so: " When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long, for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer" (Psalm 32:3-4). The frank and brokenhearted owning of our sins is imperative if peace of conscience is to be maintained. This is the change of attitude that God requires.
4. An actual turning from sin. "Surely there is no one here so stupefied with laudanum of hellish indifference as to imagine that he can revel in his lusts and afterward wear the white robes of the redeemed in paradise. If you imagine you can be partakers of the blood of Christ, and yet drink the cup of Belial; if you imagine you can be members of Satan and members of Christ at the same time, ye have less sense than one would give you credit for. No, you know that right hands must be cut off and right eyes plucked out-that the most darling sins must be renounced-if you would enter the kingdom of God" (from Spurgeon on Luke 13:24).
Three Greek words are used in the New testament that present different phases of repentance. First, metanoeo, Which means a "change of mind" (Mat 3:2; Mark 1:15,). Second, metanolomai, which means "a change of Heart" (Mat 21:29,32; Heb 7:21). Third, metanoia, which means "a change of course of life" (Mat 3:8; 9:13; Acts 20:21). The three must go together for genuine repentance. Many experience a change of mind: they are instructed and know better, but they continue to defy God. Some are even exercised in heart or conscience, yet they continue in sin. Some are informed in mind and uneasy in heart, who never reform their lives. The three must go together.
"He that covereth sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). He who does not, fully in his heart's desire and increasingly so in his life, turn from his wicked ways has not repented. If I really hate sin and sorrow over it, shall I not abandon it? Note carefully the "wherein in time past!" of Ephesians 2:2 and "were sometimes" of Titus 3:3! "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him" (Isa 55:7).
This is the change of course God requires..........to be continued

A.W. Pink

"Living life with the light turned on"

Our associate pastor made a statement this morning in the sermon he gave . "God has brought Christians out of the domain of darkness into his marvelous light, so we as Christians are people who are living with the light on."
Kinda fits well with this blog name. So, I think I will use his statement somewhere on this blog.
I have been reading and studying what biblical repentance is and what it looks like. In the aspect of someone experiencing the new birth and also repentance in the life of the believer.
Repentance in a lost man is achieved by the power of the Holy Spirit awakening that individual to his sinful condition and his need for a saviour.Lost man is dead Ephesians 2:1.
What he needs, in essence ,is for God to turn on the Light switch for him. As we emerge from darkness into Christ's marvelous light we still stumble but yet we are still in His Light.
The light of Gods word ever present, like a light house beacon shining in the distance to beckon us back to safe harbor. If we drift , which we no doubt at times will, because sin is ever present in us still. We are to live a life of repentance. There is the repentance that leads one into the kingdom, then once into the kingdom we still live a life of repentance. What does this biblical repentance look like on both sides of the kingdom?
I will start a series of posts quoting some of the great puritan writers on their views of biblical repentance . I want to start these posts off with this particular verse as a diving board if you will.
John 3:20-21
For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

EXAMINING OUR REPENTANCE

Thomas Watson(1620-1686)

If any shall say they have repented, let me desire them to try themselves seriously by those seven effects of repentance which the Apostle lays down in 2 Corinthians 7:11

1. Carefulness: The Greek word signifies a solicitous diligence or careful shunning of all temptations to sin. The true penitent flies from sin as Moses did from the serpent.

2. Clearing of ourselves: The Greek word is apology. The sense is this: though we have much care, yet through strength of temptation we may slip into sin. Now in this case, the repenting soul will not let sin lie festering in his conscience, but judges himself for sin. He pours out tears before the Lord. He begs mercy in the name of Christ and never leaves until he has gotten his pardon. Here he is cleared of guilt in his conscience and is able to make apology for himself against Satan.

3. Indignation: He that repents of sin, his spirit rises against it, as one's blood rises at the sight of him who he mortally hates. Indignation is a being fretted ,(distressed) at the heart with sin. The penitent is vexed with himself. David calls himself a fool and a beast (Psa 73:22). God is never better pleased with us than when we fall out with ourselves for sin.

4. Fear: A tender is ever a trembling heart. This hornet has stung him and now, having hopes that God is reconciled, he is afraid to come near sin anymore. The repenting soul is full of fear. He is afraid he should, for want of diligence, come short of salvation. He is afraid lest, after his heart has been soft, the waters of repentance should freeze and he should harden in sin again.

"Happy is the man that feareth alway" (Proverbs 28:14) ....A repenting person fears and sins not; a graceless person sins and fears not.

5. Vehement desire: As sour sauce sharpens the appetite, so the bitter herbs of repentance sharpen desire. But what does the penitent desire? He desires more power against sin and to be released from it. It is true, he has got loose from Satan; but he goes as a prisoner that has broken out of prison with a fetter on his leg. He cannot walk with that freedom and swiftness in the ways of God. He desires therefore to have fetters of sin taken off. He would be freed from corruption. He cries out with Paul, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24). In Short, he desires to be with Christ, as everything desires to be in it's center.

6. Zeal: Desire and zeal are fitly put together to show that true desire puts forth itself in zealous endeavor. How the penitent does bestir(busy, or rouse) in the business of salvation!

How he does take the kingdom of heaven by force (Mat 11:12)! Zeal quickens the pursuit after glory. Zeal, encountering difficulty, is emboldened by opposition and tramples upon danger. Zeal makes a repenting soul persist in Godly sorrow against all discouragements and opposition whatsoever. Zeal carries a man above himself for God's glory. Paul, before conversion, was made against the saints (Acts 26:11). After conversion, was made for Christ's sake: "Paul, thou art beside thyself"(Acts 26:24). But it was zeal, not frenzy. Zeal animates spirit and duty. It causes fervency in religion, which is a fire to the sacrifice (Rom12:11). As fear is a bridle to sin, so zeal is a spur to duty.

7.Revenge: A true penitent pursues his sins with a holy malice. He seeks the death of them as Samson was avenged on the Philistines for his two eyes. He uses his sins as the Jews used Christ. He gives them gall and vinegar to drink. He crucifies his lusts (Gal 5:24). A true child of God seeks to be revenged most of those sins that have dishonored God most...David did by sin defile his bed; afterwards by repentance he watered his bed with tears. Israel had sinned by Idolatry, and afterwards they did offer disgrace to their idols: Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver" (Isa 30:22)...... The Israelite women who had been dressing themselves by the hour and had abused their looking glasses to pride, afterwards by way of revenge as well as zeal, offered their looking glasses to the use and service of Gods tabernacle (Exodus 38:8)....So those conjurers who used curious arts of magic...when once they repented, brought their books and, by way of revenge, burned them (Acts 19:19).

These are the blessed fruits and products of repentance. If we can find these in our souls, we have arrived at that repentance which is never to be repented of (2 Co 7:10).

From: The Doctrine of Repentance, Thomas Watson

Next up J.C. Ryle: The Necessity Of Repentance (1816-1900)